When I first saw this car I couldn’t believe it, it looked like a block of flats had been dropped off in the parking bay it was occupying. It’s just incredible, the only car bigger than the 2016 XC90 is the SsangYong Turismo, and that’s an absolute destroyer-class SUV.

The initial driving experience rendered this impression as irrelevant as a second referendum – this Volvo is seriously swift. Of the many cars I’ve tested over the years, there’s been only two with the shove to defy description: an Audi S3 which was a complete freakshow and drove like a Red Arrow, and a Tesla Model S which was properly unnerving because you get to 60mph in under four seconds and it’s totally silent, like you’re gliding. And now this . . . to start with, until you get to appreciate it – which doesn’t take too long, by the way – it’s a challenging drive.

New XC90 offers a formidable driving experience (Image: Keith Jones)

The ambition behind this luxury SUV is something of a departure for the Swedish marque. It speaks of a new fluency in design terms, starting with the “Twin Engine” tag. A less confident pitch would call this a hybrid, but to say the car has two separate engines is more precise. And what engines they are: on the one side you’ve got a formidable battery pack which charges via a port near the bonnet, and it’s accompanied by a 2.0-litre petrol unit which is supercharged and turbocharged, offering an incredible 320bhp of shunt which, added to the 87bhp battery, delivers an eye-watering 407bhp and puts it in the premier league of its sector.

Make no mistake, Volvo is offering not just an alternative to the dominance of the Range Rover Sport, the Q7 and the X5. It wants to reframe the potential of its class, which may explain why this vehicle is the big talking point of the moment for all the right reasons. It wants – dares – to be different.

Lots of space for seven people in the new XC90 (Image: Keith Jones)

Impeccable luxury interior which replicates Swedish interior design in a car cabin? You got it, and they’ve thrown in a gearstick in crystal glass made by Swedish firm Orrefors to seal the deal.

An innovative engine set-up which offers both astonishing power and dual-train technology which combine to deliver astonishing mpg figures? Yes – the dash to 60mph is despatched in 5.3 seconds and the official combined mpg figure is 134.5 (I got nowhere near that by the way, but driving in a city can be thirsty, even just sitting in traffic).

The XC90's battery data is available to the driver at all times (Image: Keith Jones)

The XC90 really does bust right out of the Volvo straitjacket, but it still offers a beautifully composed driving experience and there’s nary a thing not to like about it. As long as you don’t live in one of Cambridge’s side roads!